Early this week, via a local blog, I heard that Grant Imahara would be making an appearance.  He would speak for a bit and then have a question and answer session.  I went back and forth about attending considering the time it would be (8PM which would mean B would be putting the kids to bed by herself instead of with my help).  Finally, I decided that it was too good of a chance to pass up.

So on Thursday night, I went home, made a quick dinner for everyone and then got ready.  Just before going, NHL was upset that JSL was playing on his LeapFrog ClickStart computer.  He wanted to play but JSL wasn’t sharing.  To be fair, though, the ClickStart is JSL’s and isn’t really designed for kids NHL’s age.  So I started my computer and let him play some Math Rider (a review of that is coming soon).  Then, I left my computer and math geek-in-training to see a myth-busting geek.

The talk itself was interesting.  He spoke about his movie work and being invited to join Mythbusters.  At the time, he had just finished filming another reality show, Junkyard Wars, and didn’t want to do that again.  Plus, Star Wars 3 was coming up and he really wanted to work on that.  So he turned down the invite and completed working on the Star Wars Prequels.

A few years later, though, he found his movie special effects skills being performed more and more by computers (instead of robotics and models).  Another Mythbusters invite came at just the right time and he hopped aboard.

I learned things about him that I didn’t know (he wore the C3PO suit for all public appearances and it was really uncomfortable!), things about the Mythbusters that I didn’t know (Jamie has a disguise for airport trips. He takes off his beret and puts on a baseball cap.) and heard plenty of stories about him and his colleagues.

As I mentioned before, this was going to have a Q & A portion.  I knew that I wanted to ask a question, but didn’t know just what.  I figured he has heard “What’s your favorite myth?” at every talk.  NHL, remembering the duct tape episode, said I should ask “How strong is duct tape?”  (Note to self: This Spring, NHL and I really need to work on a Duct Tape Swing project.)  Finally, I decided and walked up to the mike.

I told him that, as the father of a 7 year old, I use Mythbusters to encourage a love of science in my child.  I mentioned NHL’s duct tape question and Grant mentioned seeing my tweet.  (I suppressed the urge to exclaim “Grant Imahara read my tweet! SQEEEEE!”)  Given how every episode is prefaced with “Don’t Try This At Home” (for obvious safety reasons), I asked if they had ever considered doing a Do Try This At Home special.  Busting some myths or performing some experiments in manners that parents and kids could duplicate in their house.

The first reaction was from the audience.  Everyone applauded.  Then Grant complimented me on the question and said he’s never heard that one before.  He mentioned Kari Byron’s show on the Science Channel, Head Rush, which does feature some “Try It At Home” segments.  (I had set this to DVR but it initially filled up my DVR so I had to remove the recordings.  I’ve reset it to record now that more space was cleared off.)  He said that it was a very good idea, but probably not too likely given that the Mythbusters episodes thrive on things (explosions, gunfire, crashes, etc) that really can’t be done at home.

After the Q & A was over, we were given the opportunity to get our picture taken with him and get autographs.  I had him sign my copy of the Mythbusters book: “Don’t Try This At Home.”  (Ironically, this book was published just after he joined the Mythbusters and there’s not a single photo of Grant in it!)  He complimented me on the question and we got our photo taken.

Then it was time to pack up and head back home.  My computer-and-math geek-in-training and my little geek-ling were fast asleep.  I showed B the autograph and the photo of us together.

Thanks, Grant for such an entertaining and informative session.  Here’s hoping that I get to meet Adam, Jamie, Tory and Kari sometime soon!

This week, NHL had swim lessons.  Usually, we all go and I play with JSL while NHL learns how to swim.  This time, though, NHL’s Hebrew school had an open house at the same time.  So we divided the chores.  B went to the open house, JSL went to stay with B’s parents and I went with NHL to his swim class.

While watching NHL go in and out of the pool, I looked around me.  I was surrounded by parents of kids around NHL’s age.  This was my peer group.  I always complain of not having any offline friends to hang out with, so why not make some friends here?

Yet, there I sat.  I was tweeting effortlessly with people online, but offline I barely managed a two sentence small-talk with someone who I overheard was sending his child to the same child care center that NHL went to.

I had a similar experience in BlogHer.  There were plenty of decent conversations that I engaged in, but when I was outside of my comfort zone, I just sat there and kept quiet.  I wanted to join in the conversations, but it was like my brain froze up and could offer nothing to converse about.

At least partially as a result of the bullying I suffered through, I’ve always struggled with face-to-face communications.  I’ll be paralyzed in fear that something I say will be completely wrong, inappropriate, unfunny, etc.  I’ve worked hard to suppress and surmount that fear, but parts of it will always be with me.  It’s just one of the ways that bullying has made me weaker, not stronger.

Meanwhile, the Internet has been a godsend.  By removing the face-to-face aspect, I become a much more confident and social individual.  If I send out a tweet and realize it was a bad joke, I shrug my shoulders and send out another tweet.

My Aloha Friday question for today is: Do you find that you are much more social online than offline?

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the McLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha #61

Last year, I wrote about how I would love to cut the cable cord and stop paying for cable TV.  At the time, I assumed that DVD rentals/purchases (including services such as Netflix), in-home streaming (via purchased and ripped DVDs) and the Internet would pick up the slack from our loss of cable TV.  After all was said and done, I figured that cutting the cable cord would save us $15 a month.  Not much, really.

Later on, I actually won a Roku and tried out Netflix.  This resulted in a four part series titled Netflix, Roku and Cut Cable, Oh My!.  (Here are links to part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4.)  During this series, I revised my estimates, including purchasing equipment to receive OTA signals and a TiVo box to record shows.  I also cut back on Amazon VOD and purchased DVD estimates.  At the end, I wound up estimating a savings of $40 a month.

Since it has been about year, I figured it was time for a follow-up.  First of all, our cable cord is still fully intact.  Despite our calculations of what we would save, it turns out that too many of the shows we like watching are on cable TV.  Still, our television landscape has changed dramatically in the past year and it doesn’t bode well for the future of the cable cord.

First of all, that three month Netflix trial turned into a paid-subscription.  Yes, this is $13.99 extra a month, but it is well worth it.  We get 2 DVDs out at a time and unlimited streaming.  Thanks to our Roku box, we can watch videos streaming from Netflix on our television.  The kids have taken to this the most and will watch the same shows over and over.  They even request “Roku” (by which they usually mean Netflix on Roku) over regular TV on a regular basis.

NHL and JSL have discovered classic cartoons such as Pink Panther and Rugrats and will watch their antics over and over.  (Note to Netflix and Nickelodeon: Please get more than just the first 4 seasons of Rugrats on streaming!)

Amazon VOD has gotten almost no use.  About the only time I’ve used it was when I had a credit to use up.  Even then, my purchase has gone unwatched since the boys love Roku so much.  Still, were I to cut cable, I could see buying Mythbusters this way, but not much else.  A season of Mythbusters on Amazon VOD would cost about $43.50.  At that rate, I might be better off waiting and buying it on DVD.  (I still wish Netflix could get the DVD season sets instead of the “random episode” collection DVDs.)

Paid rentals and DVD purchases have gone virtually extinct.  Yes, we’ll buy the occasional DVD, but this is a rare event.  Meanwhile, our trips to the library to take out DVDs have become a nearly weekly event.  The boys get excited to go to the DVD section and pick out 1 DVD each.  Then they can’t wait to get home and watch it over and over until it is time to return it and pick a new DVD.  This is quite a deal since it is essentially free.  “Essentially” because it is paid for via our taxes, but I can think of worse ways to spend tax money than beefing up our public libraries.  Besides, the boys almost always get books while there too.  We’ll leave with three or four DVDs and a big bag full of books.

Still, there are cable channels that we just love watching too much to cancel.  If these shows were available in a streaming model (say, via Hulu Plus, Netflix or some other provider), we would gladly subscribe to those and ditch the cable cord.  Until that happens, though, I don’t think the cord will get sliced.  Of course, as more content goes streaming and as we watch less and less non-streaming content, the cable cord’s lifespan seems more and more limited.  I’d probably be safe to declare that we won’t cut it in the next year, but I wouldn’t be as sure about the next 3 – 5 years.

I usually do a Wordless Wednesday on Wednesdays, but this one needs some introduction.  It’s no secret that I’m a geek on many levels, including (but definitely not limited to) a math geek and a computer geek.  So when I heard that Google was being used to make Venn Diagrams of religious stereotypes, I was intrigued.

The basic premise is that you type “Why is X so” or “Why are X so” into Google’s search box.  Google will, helpfully, supply you with terms that others have searched on.  The resulting terms are written down and charted into a Venn Diagram.  (For the math-challenged, Venn Diagrams are big circles which encompass the terms and perhaps overlap with other circles.)  For example, if you were looking to make a political version, you might use “Democrat” and “Republican” and get this Venn Diagram.

Of course, all of the terms stated above were made by Google users, not by me.  So please don’t pepper me with e-mails, comments, tweets or other forms of contact saying “How dare you call my political party Stupid!”  I’m only here to make the Venn Diagrams and perhaps point out some interesting features on them.  In this one, I’d say that the searches were likely done by members of the rival parties and that each party seems to describe the other with the same derogatory terms.

Then, I decided to move onto Moms and Dads.  However, I also thought I’d be ambitious.  Why not include Men and Women in the diagram?  Make it a four-way chart, like so:

Notice that, apparently, Moms, Dads, Men and Women are all described as “Stupid.”  Perhaps kids googling about their parents while each sex searches to understand the other?  Dads and Men are both mean, but dads are spared the “Selfish and Lazy” aspects of men.  Meanwhile, Women are “emotional, complicated and crazy” but moms are simultaneously “nosy and nice.”  (They are very sweet while they leaf through your stuff?)  Moms and Dads find common ground in being annoying.  (To each other?  Their kids?  All of the above?)

Around now, the computer geek in me took over and I decided to search for Microsoft, Google and Apple.

They are all successful (of course), but Microsoft and Apple are expensive while Google is simply “Big”, “Awesome” and… “Racist”?!!!  I’m at a loss for that one.  Any ideas where that could have come from?

Of course, this led to a comparison of the four major cell phone carriers in the US.

This must be the simplest of the bunch.  All of the carriers are thought of as expensive.  Verizon and AT&T are both seen as slow.  Meanwhile, Sprint and T-Mobile are both Expensive and Cheap.

The results of these searches were quite interesting.  Any ideas on others to do?  Perhaps I’ll do a follow-up post.

As I mentioned before, we went apple picking two Saturdays ago and wound up with 29.5 pounds of apples.  Some of these found their way into a big batch of Slow Cooker Apple Sauce, but there were still plenty left.  I saw a recipe online for Apple Cheddar Pizza and it intrigued me.  So, for dinner Sunday, I made four pizzas.  Two were the usual sauce-and-cheese affairs, but the other two…

First, as always, we gather our ingredients.

That would be pizza shells, shredded cheddar cheese and apples.  Note, that I used more than those two small apples.  Depending on the size of your apples, you might need three or four per pizza.

First, I laid out the pizza shell.

Note: If you make your own from scratch or buy dough, that’s great.  Just get it to the “ready to top” stage and continue on from here.

Next, I tossed on a thin layer of cheddar.

I pealed, cored and thinly sliced the apples.  The slices were arranged in a circular pattern on the pizza.

At this point, you could toss on a little cinnamon or your favorite apple-accompanying spice.  I was in a hurry to taste this so on went a second layer of cheesy goodness.

It went into the oven for about 7 minutes until the cheese was melted.

Um, like I said, I was in a hurry to eat this.  So much so that I forgot to take a photo of the whole pie.  Oops.  Want a slice?

If, like me, you forgot decided not to add a spice before, you could always add it now.

Or, also like me, you could make a second pie.

The Verdict

NHL declared this to be the best pizza I’ve ever made.  His exact words!  So I’d say this was a hit.  What’s not to like?  Apples and cheese make a great combo.  And, with about 14 more pounds of apples left, I might be making this again very soon.

Ok, I was going to write about my weekend.  The things I did with my boys and stuff.  But then I read this blog post and suddenly those other topics can wait.

The basic gist of the article is that bullying takes two to work.  The bully and the bullied.  The author says that if the bullied kids would simply fight back, bullies would move on to someone else.  He also declares that bullying is a fact of life and parents who come to their children’s aid in cases of bullying are only making the situation worse.  Don’t believe me?  Here’s a quote from the article:

Every time you intercede on your child’s behalf or appeal to the school system, every time you negotiate for more impotent rules to attempt to govern the behavior of other people’s kids, every time you whisk your child away from an unpleasant situation without encouraging them to solve it for themselves, every time you give away your child’s power to stand up for themselves to a teacher, monitor, lawyer, principal, you make them that much weaker and more vulnerable to bullying, especially when they’re very young. It’s akin to blasting your immune system with antibiotics every time you get a runny nose. The immune system’s ability to fight back is never tested and strengthened, and when some serious illness comes along, your body completely caves in. The same exact principle is at work every time you swoop in to rescue your child.

The bolding is his, not mine.  According to him, if NHL is bullied in school, I should tell him to just be a man and punch the kid in the nose.  That’ll stop the big, bad bully real quick.  I guess then I should crack open a beer and yell at my wife because dinner is three minutes late.  Sorry, for a minute there I was transported back to the 1950’s.  Bullying is a complex subject and one response definitely does not fit all.  It definitely isn’t as easy as “buck it up and fight like a man.”

I hate to play the “you can’t understand unless you’ve been through it” card, but to properly appreciate how a bullied kid feels you really have to have been bullied in the past.  I would recommend reading through my My Bullied History series to get a better picture, but I’ll give a quick rundown of where I was mentally and socially in high school.

By high school, I had already been bullied by my teacher and the person I regarded as my best friend.  As such, I had taken a “don’t ask for help, take care of it yourself” attitude.  My classmates were by and large friendly to me, but there was a group of kids who decided that it was fun to torment me.  They would follow me from class to class shouting insults at me or laughing at me when I tried altering the route I took to avoid them.  They would get to my class before me (on the times they didn’t follow me around) and block my entrance.  While I tried to push my way through them, they would heckle me.  Every day was filled with dread over what torment they would visit upon me.

The rest of my classmates either didn’t notice this or turned a blind eye to it.  Nobody stood up and told them to stop.  In my mind, at the time, I had no allies.  It was me versus 6 guys.  Physically fighting them wasn’t an option.  They would beat me up and then make fun of me more.  Plus, I would likely get in more trouble for “starting” the fight since the bullying would be my word against theirs.

So I took it.  I absorbed every verbal blow and tried not to show the tiniest reaction.  But the reactions were there.  On trips to and from school, I would cringe as I heard kids laughing on the bus.  I was sure they were laughing at me, even when I knew they weren’t.  I don’t think I ever contemplated suicide, but I did think about violence from time to time.  But for a few changes in circumstances, I could have been one of those kids that snaps and goes violent in his school.

So, where did I go wrong according to the blog author?  My parents didn’t intervene (partly because I don’t think I told them the full extent of what was going on) and I didn’t rely on anyone other than myself.  My “do it yourself” attitude should have made me stronger.  So why did I leave high school so emotionally and socially weak?  Why do I feel the repercussions to this day when those bullies stopped being a threat to me over 15 years ago?

I suppose he would say it is because I never fought back.  Well, I did fight back against one bully.  Before the group of bullies incidents, there was a kid who began taunting me before class.  I pulled him by the hand, executed a perfect clothesline maneuver (I was a fan of wrestling back then) and he landed in a row of desks.  Guess what happened?  I got in trouble for violence and another group of bullies took his place.

Had I fought against those bullies, I’d have gotten beaten up.  Why would they stop bullying me if they knew I couldn’t physically hurt them when they were together?  They could rely on one another for support.  (When I passed just one of them in the hall by themselves, they didn’t say anything to me.)  If I landed a punch on Bully #1, Bully #’s 2 – 6 would have landed punches on me.  Who could I rely on for support?  My classmates who didn’t seem to care if I was bullied?  My parents who didn’t intervene?  My teachers who would only get involved if I got violent?  It was just isolated, socially awkward me versus the bullies.  There was no support network backing me up.

I should correct that.  There was one person.  My best friend, G, who listened to me talk of the emotional damage I had from the bullying.  He wasn’t bullied himself and so initially wrote it off as me being dramatic.  But as time went on, he began to see that I wasn’t pretending but was really hurting.  He happened to be on speaking terms with my bullies and talked with them.  Risking being targeted himself, he told them what was happening.  They (apparently) were just “having fun” and didn’t think of the consequences.  When confronted with the truth of what was really happening, they backed down.

So, in the end, my bullying problem was solved not by a big showdown in the schoolyard, not by fists flying, not by some misguided “immune system” comparison, but by a support network.  My friend was my sounding board, keeping me from going off the deep end.  He took action to stop the bullying.  If it wasn’t for him, things would have turned out a lot differently.

The real solution to bullying isn’t simple, but one big component is support.  Kids, talk to your parents.  Talk to your teachers.  I know it seems like they won’t know anything about what you’re going through, but they might surprise you.  Even if they haven’t personally experienced bullying, though, a sympathetic ear can do a world of good.  Parents/Teachers, be there for your kids/students.  Talk with them about how you can work together to solve the problem.  And to all of the kids who aren’t being bullied, keep your eyes and ears open.  If you see bullying, report it.  Anonymously, if you must, but report it.  Even better, talk to the bullied kid.  Let them know that what is happening to them is wrong and you’re there for them if they need help.  The bigger and stronger a support network that a bullied kid has, the less damage that a bully can do.

Right after BlogHer 2010, I started thinking about our trip.  Although I loved the sessions and meeting company representatives, I wished I had more time to see the sights in New York City.  With Disney Social Media Moms, the kids and I would go through the theme parks and have fun while B was in conferences.  I began to envision a blogger get-together that was more vacation than conference.

I pictured going to some vacation spot (be it New York City, Disney World, or someplace else) with my family.  Meanwhile, other bloggers would time their trips to that spot for the same time and hotel.  Sightseeing trips or other vacation activities would be organized so that the families could stick together and socialize.  (Going as a group might get us good group rates.)

I haven’t done anything to make my vision a reality just yet.  I don’t even know if anyone would be interested.

Thus, my Aloha Friday question for today is: If there was a Social Media Family Vacation Club, would you be interested in attending it?

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the MckLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha #60

For someone who loves dressing up in costumes, candy and pretty much every other aspect of Halloween, I  don’t have many memories of going trick or treating when I was younger.  I remember being dressed up as a hobo with my mother putting makeup on me (to simulate a dirty face) and I remember coming home with plastic pumpkin buckets full of candy.  After my mother sorted through them (removing anything obviously dangerous), my sister and I were allowed some moderate candy binging.

When I became a father, Halloween was something I looked forward to a lot.  The first year, was a bit of a disappointment.  Obviously, NHL wasn’t going to understand trick or treating, much less why Mom and Dad were putting him in this weird outfit and taking photos.

As NHL grew, though, he began to understand.  At daycare, his class would put on a costume parade and I would be right there taking photos.  One year, he dressed as a monkey so I constructed a big yellow hat to go along with it.  It was quite ugly and my “costume” didn’t look anything like Curious George’s Man In The Yellow Hat, actually it looked more like a traffic cone, but I was happy to join in the fun.

I actually missed JSL’s second Halloween (the first one that he would actually understand Trick or Treating) because I attended my friend’s wedding.  Yes, they were married on Halloween and, yes, the reception was a costume ball.  I got to keep my costume, so I’ve dressed as Aragorn from Lord of the Rings for a few years now.

Now that JSL is old enough to understand trick or treating, we expect Halloween to be a very fun night.  Of course, we take measures to ensure that the fun is safe fun.  First of all, they don’t trick or treat without adult supervision.  Secondly, we don’t stray far from known houses.  We’ll trick or treat on my in-law’s block and on our block.  That’s it.  We’ also screen all of their goodies for potential hazards.

Lastly, we go trick or treating before it gets too dark.  This is for many reasons.  If Halloween falls on a school night (like it does this year), we don’t want them dragging the next day because they were out late the previous night.  We also don’t need to worry about reflectors, glo sticks, flashlights and the like.  Plus, it means they get to enjoy some candy before it’s time for bed.  Finally, an early trick or treating means that we both can enjoy our boys trick or treating and still be home in time for other trick or treaters to stop by our house.  (Otherwise, one of us gets to go trick or treating with them and the other has to stay home and man the candy distribution center.)

I wrote this review while participating in a blog campaign by Dad Central Consulting and they sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.

Months ago, NHL began expressing fear that a squirrel would come up to him and bite or scratch him.  I explained to him that squirrels would run away from any people that approached.  Eventually, he understood and his fear went away.

Fast forward to today.  I was going to pick NHL up at Hebrew School, but I was running early.  I decided to go to take some photos for a website I’m working on.  I parked in the parking lot, grabbed my camera and got out of my car.  That’s when I saw the little guy.

At first, I thought he might be injured.  I approached slowly and took his photo, intending to move on once he ran away.  But he surprised me and ran towards me.  No matter which way I dodged, the little guy would look around for me and hop over to me.

I tried taking a video, but he wouldn’t cooperate – running closer to me than I could shoot.

I tried leading him to a tree in the hopes he’d climb it, but he kept coming back to me.  Eventually, I couldn’t wait any more.  I had to pick up NHL.  But I didn’t want the little guy to run to me and get crushed under my car.  So I ran over to and around a parked car.  As the little squirrel hopped over to find me, I quickly went around, made a beeline for my car and got in.  The last I saw of him, the baby squirrel was peaking out from under the car, looking to see where I went.

I know it was just a squirrel and could have even been sick, but I felt awful.  Almost like I abandoned my own child.  I called the Temple as I picked up my son to see if someone could call Animal Control, but nobody was there.  Maybe it’s the dad in me who hates to see any baby alone.  Maybe it’s the animal lover in me.  Maybe I’m just a big softie.  All I know is that the baby squirrel will haunt me for awhile.

Should I have done something different?  What would you have done?